Painful Rumors
by Celeste K. Raven
Summary: Tai Lung hears a painful rumor from the darkness of Chorh-Gom Prison.


Tai Lung rolled over in his ''sleep'' just enough to allow the guard easy access to his cuffed paws. After this action he lay almost motionless. He kept his breaths deep and even, timing it to the flickering of the torches above his head.

He knew this particular guard's name was Jian (meaning healthy), a fact that Tai Lung found to be ironic. The undersized rhino appeared to be neither healthy in body or mind. He was often ''bullied'' in the only way the rough sentries at Chorh-Gom Prison knew how to bully; by physical assault. Tai Lung had seen Jian beaten nearly to a pulp right in front of him, yet he had never failed to limp away eventually. Such were the horrors of the Valley of Peace's one and only maximum security prison.

_The Valley of Peace? Ha. The world is full of irony today. _ The words sounded dry even in his mind. He tried to remember how long it had been since he last used his voice. _A month… maybe more. _ What did it matter?

Jian finished his secret task and slipped the Twelve Point Cuffs back around Tai Lung's swollen wrists. There was a familiar pressure of metal that squeezed too tight and was _too damn hard_. Tai lung wanted to scream, and perhaps he let out the smallest huff of breath, breaking his false, even breathing cycle, because Jian glanced back at him as he walked away.

Jian had been losing Tai Lung's cuffs for the past two weeks. They tightened around painful pressure points every time he moved, which he tended to do, most often in his sleep. Jian's reasons for doing this bothered Tai Lung. It was certainly not in any attempt to let the wicked Master escape (so many parts of the snow leopard's body were chained down that the rhino guard could take the cuffs off without fear). To Tai Lung's knowledge, Jian did it simply out of pity. This should have angered Tai Lung. To receive pity was to receive weakness. Weakness spread faster and killed quicker than any plague. Yet, he could not return this curse of pity, and there were times when his paws had turned so purple from the lack of blood flow that he worried he was going to lose them. This stuck fear deep into the snow leopards heart. His hands were weapons, and very good ones. The rest of his body might not be able to compensate for the loss.

Jian, who had almost reached the lift that would carry him back up to one of the higher levels of the prison, suddenly made a beeline for another exit, not a lift but a door. Tai Lung, who had been very meticulous when studying his surrounds during the first couple days of his imprisonment, knew that the door led to a storage room. He storage room for _weapons_. He recalled laughing allowed when he first discovered the important tidbit of information. What fools! He intended to make them pay for _that _mistake.

Tai Lung heard the heavy metal clinking of chains, an achingly familiar sound these days. Someone was coming down –probably to give him food- and they had almost caught Jian. Tai Lung felt something close to concern, but dismissed it quickly. _So what if Jian- so what if I lose my hands. _He was Tai Lung; the feared Dragon Warrior. The one whose name scolded naughty children and hunted their parent's nightmares.

''-Grandmaster never hesitated, they say.''

There were two of them, both chuckling coldly, and they weren't bringing him food; just water. Tai Lung bit his tongue to stop from growling with frustration. He had refused to eat four days ago and had not been offered food since.

''I never imagined Shifu to be the kind to take in lost little ones,'' one of the guard's said.

''But now he's taken in two,'' the other said. This one was named Keung. ''And look, here's one now.''

Tai Lung kept his eyes closed as they approached, mocking him with every step. His tail swung slowly back and forth.

''Awww, doesn't he look like an angle when he sleeps?''

''Is this Shifu's precious child? The chosen one for whom the Dragon Scroll was written? He looks too sweet for such a power.''

''Let's keep him here, Keung. Hide him away from the crude evils of the world.''

More demonic laughter. Tai Lung tuned it out, instead focusing on the implications of Keung's words. Now he's taken in_ two_?

''Two?'' Tai Lung questioned out loud. He had resigned himself to the fact that the only way to get information out of these morons was to allow them to tease him with it.

''Ah, yes, two,'' Keung glanced at his comrade, moving closer to the prisoner. ''Your master had found himself another prodigy.''

''A _replacement _prodigy,'' the nameless guard said. ''His last one went bad. Maybe this one will go rotten too.''

''And where did this nameless prodigy come from?''

''They say she was an orphan. Maybe she appeared on his doorstep just like you did.''

_She? _ Tai Lung's eyes glinted in the near blackness of the prison.

''I hate it when people leave their trash on my steps,'' Keung muttered, sharing sick amusement with the nameless guard as the lift creaked under their combined weights.

Tai Lung cursed this _she _with every part of himself. He did not know still did not know her origins, her species, or even her name. The only thing he had to hate was a gender. It did not truly matter. He did not need such trivial things to hate _her_. And hate her he did, almost as much as he hated Shifu for trying to replace him.

_You think I am so easily gotten rid of, Baba? You shun one child and move on to another. Very well. Perhaps by the time we are done I will have an army of forgotten children to bury you in. _

**Feel free to tell me if you see any SPAG mistakes, I wrote this way late at night and rushed the editing so I could get it published before morning. **

**A quick question to all you KFP fans out there; do you think Tai Lung and Tigress lived at the Jade Palace at the same time? I've read many story suggesting they do, but that's not the impression I got from the movie. It seemed like Tai Lung was in prison before Shifu adopted Tigress, in which case Tai Lung is at least a decade older then Tigress and the Five. Any opinions? **


End file.
